Focusing on school leadership relations between principals and teachers, this study examines the potential of their active collaboration around instructional matters to enhance the quality of teaching and student performance. The analysis is grounded in two conceptions of leadership-transformational and instructional. The sample comprises 24 nationally selected restructured schools-8 elementary, 8 middle, and 8 high schools. In keeping with the multilevel structure of the data, the primary analytic technique is hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). The study finds that transformational leadership is a necessary but insufficient condition for instructional leadership. When transformationaland shared instructional leadership coexist in an integrated form of leadership, the influence on school performance, measured by the quality of its pedagogy and the achievement of its students, is substantial.

Although student engagement with the intellectual work of school is important to students' achievement and to their social and cognitive development, studies over a span of two decades have documented low levels of engagement, particularly in the classroom, Examining several theoretical perspectives that attempt to explain engagement through comprehensive frameworks, this study evaluates the effect on engagement of school reform initiatives that are consistent with the theories. The study also investigates whether patterns exist in students' engagement, whether the patterns are consistent across grade levels, and whether class subject matter (mathematics or social studies) differentially affects engagement. The sample includes 3, 669 students representing 143 social studies and mathematics classrooms in a nationally selected sample of 24 restructuring elementary, middle, and high schools. Because of the nature of the nested data (students nested within classrooms nested within schools), the analysis is conducted using hierarchical linear modeling in its three-level application (HLM3L). The reform initiatives, which are consistent with the theories, eliminate personal background effects. Together with classroom subject matter, they substantially influence engagement. The results are generally consistent across grade levels.

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In order to address concerns about the intellectual quality of students' work under various "active learning" formats appearing in education reform efforts, this study developed a model of authentic pedagogy and assessed its presence in 23 restructured schools. The proposed authentic pedagogy is consistent with an active learning perspective and posits standards of intellectual quality, rathet than teaching techniques or processes, as the central target of innovation. The study defined authentic academic achievement with three criteria: construction of knowledge, disciplined inquiry, and value beyond school. The school study examined instruction for one year at 23 schools (equally divided among elementary, middle, and high schools) with emphasis on six valued outcomes: (1) authentic pedagogy and authentic academic performance; (2) equity for students; (3) empowerment of teachers, parents, and principals; (4) sense of community among staff and students; (5) reflective professional dialogue; and (6) accountability. The study found that schools varied substantially in their success on standards for authentic pedagogy. Overall, pedagogy was rarely rated at the higher levels of the study's standard indicating that the promotion of authentic teaching is enormously difficult. Authentic pedagogy did appear to improve authentic academic performance for all students in mathematics and social studies. Finally, student achievement was reasonably equitable across gender, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. (Contains 44 references.) (JB) * * from the original document. *

Professional community among teachers, the subject of a number of recent major studies, is regarded as an ingredient that may contribute to the improvement of schools. The research reported in this article is grounded in the assumption that how teachers interact with each other outside of their classrooms may be critical to the effects of restructuring on students. The analysis focuses on the type of professional community that occurs within a school and investigates both the organizational factors that facilitate its development and its consequences for teachers’ sense of responsibility for student learning. The findings suggest that wide variation in professional community exists between schools, much of which is attributable to both structural features and human resources characteristics, as well as school level. Implications for current school reform efforts are discussed.